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At war with honour? - Feminist perspectives on female honour and the regulation of wartime rape

Coghlan, Ebba LU (2016) LAGF03 20161
Department of Law
Faculty of Law
Abstract (Swedish)
Systematiska våldtäkter av kvinnor i väpnade konflikter är ingen nyhet, utan ett fenomen som drabbat åtskilliga kvinnor, under åtskilliga konflikter, under historiens gång. Men trots att våldtäkter i väpnade konflikter har varit ett utspritt problem, har fenomenet väckt förhållandevis lite intresse inom det internationella samfundet, och regleringar på området har vuxit fram i en långsam takt.

Utvecklingen mot mera omfattande och precisa regleringar har varit långdragen, och trots att den internationella humanitära rätten, samt krigsbrott, idag uttryckligen omfattar våldtäkter i väpnade konflikter, har det inte alltid varit självklart. Det förlopp som lett fram till dagens regleringar började nämligen på allvar först på slutet av... (More)
Systematiska våldtäkter av kvinnor i väpnade konflikter är ingen nyhet, utan ett fenomen som drabbat åtskilliga kvinnor, under åtskilliga konflikter, under historiens gång. Men trots att våldtäkter i väpnade konflikter har varit ett utspritt problem, har fenomenet väckt förhållandevis lite intresse inom det internationella samfundet, och regleringar på området har vuxit fram i en långsam takt.

Utvecklingen mot mera omfattande och precisa regleringar har varit långdragen, och trots att den internationella humanitära rätten, samt krigsbrott, idag uttryckligen omfattar våldtäkter i väpnade konflikter, har det inte alltid varit självklart. Det förlopp som lett fram till dagens regleringar började nämligen på allvar först på slutet av artonhundratalet. För att förstå denna utveckling, kommer avhandlingen behandla inte bara de nuvarande regleringarna och den historiska utvecklingen, utan även försöka ge en inblick i den syn på kvinnor och våldtäkt som var utbredd i början på nittonhundratalet och framåt. Slutligen kommer regleringarna utvärderas från ett antal feministiska perspektiv, i ett försök att utröna om kvinnors ställning kan ha påverkat hur regleringarna rörande våldtäkter i väpnade konflikter utformades.

Fram tills 1970-talet fokuserade regleringarna på familjens heder och rättigheter, istället för på de individuella offren. Detta fokus har fått många konsekvenser, bland annat att vissa kvinnors erfarenheter förringats, nämligen de som inte ansetts inneha heder värd att skydda. (Less)
Abstract
Wartime rape is old news, and most experts agree that for most of human history, war and rape have gone hand in hand. But although wartime rape is a centuries old phenomenon, it seems to have disinterested the international legal community for most of its existence. The current legislation regulating wartime rape in international humanitarian law (IHL) is decades, not centuries, old. This thesis will present a few of the reasons behind this previous disinterest, as well as some of the consequences.

The focus of this thesis will be on international humanitarian law, including war crimes. The development towards the prevailing regulations began in earnest at the end of the nineteenth century, and was not completed until the late 1970s. In... (More)
Wartime rape is old news, and most experts agree that for most of human history, war and rape have gone hand in hand. But although wartime rape is a centuries old phenomenon, it seems to have disinterested the international legal community for most of its existence. The current legislation regulating wartime rape in international humanitarian law (IHL) is decades, not centuries, old. This thesis will present a few of the reasons behind this previous disinterest, as well as some of the consequences.

The focus of this thesis will be on international humanitarian law, including war crimes. The development towards the prevailing regulations began in earnest at the end of the nineteenth century, and was not completed until the late 1970s. In order to understand this development, both the historical and the present-day regulations will be discussed, in combination with a modest introduction to some historical perceptions of women and rape. Furthermore, both the present-day regulations, and the historic development, will be analysed from a series of feminist perspectives, in order to understand whether perceptions of females and their roles in society may have affected legislation concerning wartime rape.

Regulations concerning wartime rape have been relatively slow to develop, and it was only with the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions that the controversial connection to ‘family honour and rights’ was removed in 1977. With this, focus moved from honour, to the individual victims experiences. The historical focus on honour is problematic, as it delegitimised the experiences of some victims - those not deemed to possess honour. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Coghlan, Ebba LU
supervisor
organization
course
LAGF03 20161
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
public international law, law
language
English
id
8874080
date added to LUP
2016-07-03 21:32:27
date last changed
2016-07-03 21:32:27
@misc{8874080,
  abstract     = {{Wartime rape is old news, and most experts agree that for most of human history, war and rape have gone hand in hand. But although wartime rape is a centuries old phenomenon, it seems to have disinterested the international legal community for most of its existence. The current legislation regulating wartime rape in international humanitarian law (IHL) is decades, not centuries, old. This thesis will present a few of the reasons behind this previous disinterest, as well as some of the consequences.

The focus of this thesis will be on international humanitarian law, including war crimes. The development towards the prevailing regulations began in earnest at the end of the nineteenth century, and was not completed until the late 1970s. In order to understand this development, both the historical and the present-day regulations will be discussed, in combination with a modest introduction to some historical perceptions of women and rape. Furthermore, both the present-day regulations, and the historic development, will be analysed from a series of feminist perspectives, in order to understand whether perceptions of females and their roles in society may have affected legislation concerning wartime rape.

Regulations concerning wartime rape have been relatively slow to develop, and it was only with the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions that the controversial connection to ‘family honour and rights’ was removed in 1977. With this, focus moved from honour, to the individual victims experiences. The historical focus on honour is problematic, as it delegitimised the experiences of some victims - those not deemed to possess honour.}},
  author       = {{Coghlan, Ebba}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{At war with honour? - Feminist perspectives on female honour and the regulation of wartime rape}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}